2003 Beacon Finalists
AnnouncedOn February 10 the Cable Television
Public Affairs Association (CTPAA) announced 114 finalists were
selected from 422 entries in its 2003 Beacon Awards
program. The entries were submitted by cable operators,
programming networks, and cable associations from across the
country. The Beacon Awards honor the best of the best in
cable public affairs campaigns and community outreach
efforts.

Winners will
be named during the Beacon Awards gala, set for Tuesday, April
1, at the Renaissance Mayflower hotel, Washington, DC, in
conjunction with CTPAA's FORUM 2003 conference, "Capitalizing on
Cable's Competitive Edge." A list of all 2003 Beacon
finalists is posted on the CTPAA Web site (www.ctpaa.org). All
finalists were notified directly by the CTPAA staff.
Additionally finalists were announced to trade and selected
national press outlets.

C-SPAN, Lifetime and MTV Golden
Beacon Nominees The Cable Television
Public Affairs Association (CTPAA) has named its nominees
for the association's highest honor, the Golden Beacon.
Nominees are:

"These three public affairs initiatives
exemplify all that the cable industry is doing day-in, day-out
for the local community," said Ellen East, CTPAA president and
vice president, communications and investor relations, Cox
Communications, Inc. "Among its many community efforts,
cable is working to better educate our children, raise awareness
of domestic violence and sexual assault, and increase awareness
of sexual health and the threat of HIV/AIDS."

CTPAA's Golden Beacon Award recognizes a
public affairs initiative that has made an impact within the
cable industry, while enhancing cable's image nationwide.
The 2002 Golden Beacon was awarded to Comcast Corporation for
its Comcast Cares Day 2001.

CTPAA members nominated C-SPAN for its
initiative "C-SPAN's Presidential Timeline Giveaway." In
2002, C-SPAN developed an educational outreach promotion for
C-SPAN in the Classroom to highlight its American history
resources, increase membership, and to drive home its cable
funding message. To attain this goal, C-SPAN created a
campaign to distribute a six-foot presidential timeline poster
to middle and high school social studies teachers all over the
country, free-of-charge. The poster includes the public service
careers of all 42 U.S. presidents, major events in U.S. history,
and the message that C-SPAN is created by cable and offered as a
public service. This campaign was launched October 1, and ran
through December 31. C-SPAN received requests for
timelines from more than 60,000 educators and is in the process
of distributing the posters.

Lifetime Television is a nominee for "Our
Lifetime Commitment: Stop Violence Against Women," which is part
of its commitment to informing and supporting women on the
issues most important to them. The network used the vast
power of television and the Internet to raise awareness of
domestic violence and sexual assault. In coordination with
a coalition of leading non-profit organizations, the
Congressional Women's Caucus and other bipartisan Members of
Congress, Lifetime put a national spotlight -- on-air, online
and in the halls of power -- on the problem of violence against
women, in America and around the world. Every element in the
campaign informed women and families about two life-saving
resources: the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-SAFE)
and the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) hotline
(800-656-HOPE). Lifetime Television has won two previous
Golden Beacon Awards. They won in 1997 for "Lifetime
Television Fighting Breast Cancer: Our Lifetime Commitment," and
in 1995 for "Lifetime Television Picture What Women Do."

MTV is nominated for "Fight For Your
Rights: Protect Yourself" Sexual Health Campaign, which is
dedicated to informing and empowering young people on the issues
surrounding their sexual health. Developed in partnership
with the Kaiser Family Foundation, and building off a five-year
on-air and online commitment to sexual health, the campaign
focuses primarily on HIV/AIDS, other STDs, and unintended
pregnancy. The campaign includes original programming,
public service messages, an extensive Web site, a toll-free
hotline, a guide, local forums, and opportunities for young
people to get involved in their communities. The campaign
has reached tens of millions of young people with its vital
information, many of whom were mobilized to seek out further
information and to take steps to ensure their
safety.

FORUM 2003 Update
Discover how to
leverage cable's leadership in programming, viewership, new
technologies and community affairs to your advantage.
FORUM will feature an extensive line-up of important topics
and all-star speakers who will equip public affairs
professionals with crucial tools and insights for achieving
desired results. Whatever your level of experience, you'll
discover new and proven ways of taking your public affairs
efforts to the next level. A roundup of session highlights
include:

Make Your Hotel
Room Reservation Today!March 7 is the room
reservation deadline for FORUM 2003. The Renaissance Mayflower,
in the heart of downtown Washington, DC is hosting FORUM.
The conference room rate is $209. To make reservations
call Marriott national reservations at 800/468-3571 or the
Mayflower directly at 202/347-3000 and reference CTPAA/FORUM
2003.

Reserve a Table at the 2003 Beacon Ceremony
CTPAA is selling
reserved tables for the 2003 Beacon Ceremony on April 1, 2003,
at the Renaissance Mayflower hotel, Washington, DC. A
reserved table for registered FORUM attendees is $1,500.
For dinner guests only, a reserved table at the Beacons Ceremony
is $3,000 (includes 10 tickets). For more information,
contact Michelle Butler at 202/775-1082 or mbutler@ctpaa.org.

Support the Emma Bowen Foundation
One of
FORUM's 2003 distinctive traditions is the Silent Auction and
Opening Reception. This yearís Silent Auction will kick of FORUM
on the evening of Sunday, March 30. For the fifth year, the
Silent Auction will benefit the Emma L. Bowen Foundation for
Minority Interests in Media. The Foundation is dedicated to
offering minority youth the support, education and skills needed
to obtain jobs in the media industry.

Support the foundation by donating an
item to the Silent Auction. Past popular items include the
Beatles CD box set, personal electronics, tickets to Saturday
Night Live, and jewelry. All platinum items, donations valued at
$500 and up, will be sold at a live and entertaining auction
held during the reception.

To guarantee your donation is listed in
the Silent Auction Bid Book, please send in the donation
form by March 7, 2003. Please send all donated items to
CTPAA, 1724 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036, by
March 21, 2003.

Make an Appointment with
your Congressman!Interested in an exciting activity to
augment you trip to Washington, DC, for the FORUM? Plan to
visit your Senators and Representative(s) while you are in
town. It is the perfect opportunity to build a
relationship with your elected officials and tell them about
your cable system.

Because Spring is an especially busy time
of year on Capitol Hill, you should start scheduling those
meetings now.

Begin
by calling the Member's Washington office to ask for a
meeting. You will need to speak to the Appointment
Secretary/Scheduler. You will be asked to explain who you
are, when you will be in town and the purpose of your
visit. Tell them you want to visit to share information
about your cable system, your outstanding community activities
and any advanced services that have been rolled out.
You may be asked to send a follow-up written or faxed request
for an appointment. You will include in that
correspondence the above information. If the
Member of Congress will not be available to meet with you, you
may ask for an appointment with the legislative aide who handles
telecommunications issues.

In
preparation for your meeting, create an information packet
to leave with the congressional office that includes fact sheets
and handouts on your cable system and your community
activities. You can give an overview of the past year,
including any awards you received or any measurable successes
that your community outreach campaigns have had. You can
include descriptions of any public affairs programming and civic
sponsorships. You may want to include information on
recent and planned rollouts of advanced services, efforts to
improve customer service, and educational programs. Bring
a few copies of this information for each office that you will
visit.

If there are multiple cable operators in
your area, it may be important to coordinate a joint industry
meeting. A lawmaker's office can get overwhelmed if
multiple requests for meetings come in for the same purpose,
from the same industry, for the same timeframe.
Please call NCTA's Association Affairs Department at
202/775-3673 to report meetings you schedule and if you need
help coordinating with others from your
area.

Thank You -- 2003 Corporate Members!
Welcome to our new
corporate member, Showtime Networks! For
information on how your organization can join CTPAA as a corporate
member, please contact Steve Jones at 202/775-1083.

VH1 Partners with Blue from
American Express to Save the MusicVH1
Save the Music Foundation has partnered with Blue from American
Express to create Blue For Save The Music, a new program
designed to bring greater attention to the lifelong benefits of
music education and to restore music education programs in
America's public schools. Blue For Save The Music will
raise awareness about the importance of music education in a
variety of ways and has pledged to raise $1 million this year to
help restore public school music programs at a time when funding
for music education is being cut or eliminated.

American Express and VH1 will launch the
yearlong program in conjunction with this year's Grammy Awards
taking place on February 23 in New York City with a Grammy
viewing benefit event at The Theater in Madison Square
Garden. The benefit will feature live performances and
special appearances by some of the entertainment industry's top
performers. The Blue Orchestra, a select group of music
students from Save the Music programs, will also perform at the
Grammy Viewing Party and at other events throughout the
year.

Following the Grammy
Awards ceremony, musical instruments and memorabilia used by
awards show performers will be for sale via an Internet auction
with proceeds to be donated to music education programs through
Blue For Save The Music and the Grammy Foundation. From
February 23 to March 7, 2003, the auction will be hosted at
(www.americanexpress.com/blueformusic) and at (www.grammys.com/Blueformusic.com).

Blue for Save The Music is partnering
with Infinity Broadcasting, one of the nation's leading radio
groups, to create more than 30 fundraising events to benefit
Save the Music in a variety of cities across the country.
These events will be hosted by Infinity station DJ's and feature
music performances by some of the industry's hottest
talent. Events will include instrument drives and ticket
sales to raise funds for Blue For Save The Music.

Blue For Save The Music also will produce
PSA-style ads for television and radio featuring well-known
artists including The Dixie Chicks, Mary J. Blige and Boyd
Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band. Debuting in February
and running throughout the year, these ads will portray the
tremendous influence music has made in the artists' lives and
reinforce the importance of music education.

Since VH1 Save the Music was created in
1997, more than $21 million worth of musical instruments has
been donated to 900 public schools in 75 cities, improving the
lives of nearly 400,000 children. The foundation's
ten-year plan is to bring music participation to one million
children in public schools.

DIRECTOR, MEDIA RELATIONS - VIDEO SERVICES,
CABLEVISION

Responsible for managing media and public
relations activities for Cablevision's video-related products
and services including cable, digital and video on demand
offerings. This includes heavy consumer and trade media
relations and company-wide coordination of activity among
appropriate divisions. Position also assists in formulating
media policy related to cable regulatory matters as well as
other areas including Internet, telephony and corporate
communications as needed.

The ideal candidate must
have 7+ years public relations or media relations experience
with cable telecommunications or related industry experience
strongly preferred. Additionally she/he must be a
self-starter with excellent writing and verbal skills as well as
a track record in developing diverse media relations initiatives
in a fast-paced environment. If interested please send
resume to executivena@aol.com

New CPR Facts
Newsletter

As you no doubt have noticed, the CPR
Facts has changed format from an attached Word document
into an HTML document. The CTPAA Web site will continue to
catalog past issues of the publication on the CPR
Facts Newsletter page. Comments and suggestions for
the newsletter should be sent to mbutler@ctpaa.org.